Youth IGF Turkey meeting has been held in Istanbul for a second time this year, with the coordination of Turkey-Europe Foundation as part of Network of European Digital Youth partnership. Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda has sent a message to the forum meeting prior to the event, and her statement was also forwarded to participants:

“Dear participants of the Turkish Youth IGF! In times like these, safeguarding our ability to communicate openly over the Internet is more important than ever. People around the world are sharing the same struggles and can gain so much from being connected. As the only representative of the Pirate Party in the European Parliament, I am fighting for digital rights and universal access to knowledge and culture. Nothing is more encouraging than seeing that young people around the world are thinking about what the web of the future should look like, and who use technology in creative ways to improve their lives. I hope that your discussions will be fruitful and empowering. I send all my best wishes from Brussels to Istanbul!”

–Julia Reda, Pirate Party MEP

There were three sessions at this year’s event, e-entrepreneurship, data, and rights on the net.

First session was on e-entrepreneurship, and Canan Döşlü of Kidimami App has presented her business as a start up, the discussion focused on opportunities and hardships in investments and starting a business in Turkey. Later Gökhan Biçici of Dokuz8 Citizen-Journalism News Agency talked about the media in Turkey and need for citizen-based initiatives, expanding the circle of network and building trust among readers.

Professor Aslı Telli Aydemir also briefly mentioned Güniversite initiative, designed to give e-trainings and online lectures to people, at university level by academics without time and place limitations.

During the discussion on the first session, Jeremy Rifkin’s “Zero Marginal Cost Society” talk was mentioned and commons network was brought up:

Another reference that was mentioned is Turkish economist Selçuk Şirin’s TED Talk focusing on the importance of having a dream for innovative and creative economy, rather than only labor-based production systems:

As a final statement in the e-entrepreneurship, there was also mention of an important topic of last year’s Youth IGF, when there was a session on fact-checking and verification of news sources. There was a participant from “Doğruluk Payı” (Some Truth) at the IGF and Teyit.org (a recent initiative set up to verify news) has been mentioned.

Afternoon session started with the first topic of Data. Two lawyers who are also Youth IGF Turkey organization committee Bentley Yaffe and Selin Kaledelen have opened the discussion. Among the topics discussed in this session were especially storage of data by private and state sources, uses of data, advertising, data-leaks and hacking, underage presence and protection of underage children’s information online were significant.

There was also mention of Manuel Castells’ “Network Society” works and writings in this session.

Finally, as part of data and protection of private data, the “right to be forgotten” was talked of, starting with the case of Mario Costeja Gonzalez and addressing the issue from a right to information Vs. right to be forgotten aspect regarding more recent examples.

Third and last session was on Rights on the Net, and opening remarks were made by activist Murat Çekiç who talked of his knowledge and experiences on right to exist on the internet beyond rights-advocacy. Under this title there were discussions on anti-LGBTI censorship online, nationalization on the net, internet nostalgia, as well as hate speech and free expression.

Final remarks mentioned the repeated will to initiate a National IGF for 2017, which has not been possible due to many reasons in 2016; and monthly digital talks initiating a deeper discussion for each sub-topic in the coming year as well as having extended relations in terms of approaching digital issues from multidisciplinary perspectives.

The annual forum on internet governance that is organized by the United Nations and has taken place in Istanbul in the year 2014, Internet Governance Forum (IGF), with its youth organization has been organized for the first time in Turkey, Istanbul. The forum that has had four main sessions on Internet Governance, Mass Data, Media Literacy, and Anonimity, has been organized by the Turkey European Foundation.

Youth IGF events that are taking place in five countries (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey) with the coordination of Network of European Digital Youth (NERDY), has been organized for the first time in Istanbul, Turkey on September 5th, 2015 at Istanbul Bilgi University’s Social Incubation Center with the participation of young people from Turkey and representatives from Turkey and Europe. Among the participants were students, NGO representatives, volunteers, activists, and young professionals. Turkey European Foundation has been a partner organization in the consortium that is organizing Youth IGF events across Europe, and has led this event in Istanbul. The participants have expressed their opinions and indulged into discussions at the four main sessions of the event on “Internet Governance”, “Mass Data”, “Media Literacy” and “Anonimity”, and whole day was moderated by Gürkan Özturan of the Turkey European Foundation.

At the sessions where participants engaged in extensive and in-depth discussions, the decision to organize a National IGF has been taken. Moreover, one of the participants will take his/her place at the preparation meeting to take place in the Netherlands as well as the global IGF which will take place in Brazil.

IGF Turkey

The Ninth Annual IGF Meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkey on 2-5 September 2014. The overarching theme for the meeting was: “Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multistakeholder Internet Governance”. Internet Governance Forum is a multistakeholder effort to illuminate issues and cultivate constructive discussions about the future of the Internet. The national IGF initiative provides a domestic forum to engage professionals of the digital sector, technologists, researchers, academics, activists and civil society, government representatives, business leaders. The aim of the forum is to sustain a dialogue platform and create partnerships as well as initiating policy proposals and reform. The participants include thought leaders from civil society, industry, academia and government.